First Fight In Penang.

From Sekolah Kebangsaan Laki-Laki Dungun I go to Dungun English School where they put me in Remove Class D. But you don't say Dungun English School. Every one calls it DESS. It sounds better and what could be more high class than that since every one knows only in DESS can you find the Chinese and one or two Indian students talking among themselves in English. And the Malay students too. They can speak English better than the white folks. As a matter of fact they speak very well that even the white folks don't usually understand what in the world they could be talking about. I see this at Leong Thye shop. The only store in Dungun where mems orang putih show up in a group of four or five, all in their summer dresses and straw hats to buy groceries on account of Leong Thye being the only store in Dungun who stocks up his entire shop with canned food and bottled stuff imported from England. As a matter of fact it is the only store in Dungun where you can buy red juicy apples for 5o sen. I buy these more than once just to feel like one of them white folks and I go around with the apple in my hand to show it off among the poor children who have probably never eaten an apple in their entire life. And they'd go, 'Sedak dok epal tu?' Stupid urchins, 'Sedak ahh bodoh tongong.' I can afford apples because Aunt makes a lot of money selling kain batik, songket, silverware, gold, nissang pulut and nekbat.

We have a lot of white folks in Dungun. Mostly Australians. They give orders to local folks who work in the iron mine in Bukit Besi. I don't know what they do but they look rich and well fed. At Leong Thye shop the mems orang putih would talk in singsong kinda voice calling out to their children 'Here Tommy, come here Tommy.' They live in a gated community where you can see from the opening of the wooden fence, houses bigger than the D.O's residence.

We've got a lot of white folks but we don't have enough Indians for a sepak takraw team. In fact the only Indian in Dungun who is not Muslim is the Miranda family. They live in a cluster of houses on a hill over looking Padang Astaka. I don't know what they do but they look kinda rich. And they speak a lot of English. But I don't understand a word they're saying because they don't sound like Clint Eastwood.

In Penang I see the first Sikh boy. He's got some kinda snail on top of his head that looks pretty neat and I'm wondering what this is. And so I ask him, what's that on your head, awang siput? He turns around and say, what did you just call me? I say, I just called you awang siput. All of a sudden he is all over me, wild punches coming in like rain. I jump him in the chest with random punches and now we are locked in, shoving and pushing. He got me in the rib. I got pretty pissed that I go after him like a ram in a fight over a she-goat. I got his snail and yank it hard. It comes off in a long string of hair. All of a sudden he goes limp and starts to cry.

Next day Mr Koh the discipline teacher caned me in public. That's how Siva and Yusof came over and say, 'Hang baguih larr. Hang mai dari Terangganu kan?' I'm thinking, maybe these two want a fight because of what I did to awang siput. And so I say, 'Mung nok ggochoh?'

(Words in Malay and Terangganuspeak are left untranslated on purpose.)